Historic City & Community Urbanism

Ahmedabad’s historic pols (courtyard-based neighborhoods) provide a living laboratory in climate-responsive urbanism, social cohesion, caste-community structuring, and incremental adaptation. Recognized by UNESCO, the city’s fabric offers an opportunity to examine morphology, domestic typology, shared infrastructure, and heritage governance.

Students analyze the pol as micro-urban ecosystem — studying courtyard ventilation systems, otla (threshold) culture, street widths, and religious coexistence. The work of Indian architects such as B.V. Doshi, whose climate-sensitive modernism bridges tradition and modernity, offers a critical lens into continuity and adaptation.

The Delhi phase situates findings within national heritage frameworks, adaptive reuse debates, and urban policy regimes.

Students will:

Apply Conzenian urban morphology analysis to historic street networks.
Interpret courtyard housing as climate-responsive passive design.
Examine caste, community, and cooperative governance embedded in spatial form.
Analyze conservation trade-offs between living heritage and tourism pressures.
Produce a rigorously documented Urban Morphology Dossier or Design Audit.

Urban Planning

Architectural History

Cultural Geography

Heritage Conservation

Sustainability

Anthropology of Space

Ahmedabad Historic Pols

Sabarmati Context

Delhi (Comparative Governance Sites)

Day	Location	Academic Engagement	Learning Emphasis
1	Ahmedabad	Seminar: Urban morphology theory (Conzen, Jacobs, Lynch)	Analytical framework
2	Ahmedabad	Courtyard housing typology workshop; measured sketching lab	Climate & domestic systems
3	Ahmedabad	Pol mapping exercise; spatial sequencing documentation	Community urbanism
4	Ahmedabad	Lecture: B.V. Doshi & critical regionalism	Tradition–modernity dialogue
5	Ahmedabad	Stakeholder roundtable: conservation & governance	Heritage politics
6	Ahmedabad	Infrastructure analysis: water systems, waste, shared courtyards	Urban systems
7	Ahmedabad	Informal settlement comparison	Equity & adaptation
8	Ahmedabad	Adaptive reuse case study workshop	Preservation trade-offs
9	Ahmedabad	Morphology studio I	Translation of field evidence
10	Delhi	Seminar: National heritage governance frameworks	Institutional scale
11	Delhi	Policy workshop: UNESCO, adaptive reuse & development law	Governance
12	Delhi	Dossier completion studio	Academic integration
13	Delhi	Presentations; departures	Closure